Changes to the FireWire kernel drivers in Linux 4.4...4.8

[Stefan R. <st...@s5...>]

Hi all,

it's been almost a year since I last posted release notes for the IEEE 1394
kernel drivers.  Since then, changes were made mostly in the audio drivers
by Takashi Sakamoto.  Minor changes presumably without practical impact are
not mentioned here.


Linux 4.8 (tentative, as per v4.8-rc7)
--------------------------------------

snd-firewire-tascam, snd-fireworks
  - Fix possible deadlock in hwdep interface.  Also fixed in v4.4.21 and
    v4.7.4.


Linux 4.7 (24 July 2016)
------------------------

snd-dice
  - Add support for M-Audio Profire 610, and perhaps for Profire 2626.

snd-firewire-lib
  - Add tracepoints to dump a part of isochronous packet data in order to
    support debugging of device quirks and of kernel-internal packet
    processing.  The patch changelog describes how to use this feature:
    https://git.kernel.org/linus/0c95c1d6197f
    A subsequent commit expands the dump format:
    https://git.kernel.org/linus/a9c4284bf5a9

snd-firewire-lib, snd-bebob, snd-firewire-tascam, snd-fireworks
  - Remove matching of SYT fields of the outbound stream to those of the
    inbound stream since it proves to be unnecessary in practice.  The
    same was already done in snd-dice in Linux v4.6.  This simplifies the
    kernel code and allows for finer-grained tasklet scheduling.

snd-firewire-lib, snd-bebob, snd-firewire-digi00x, snd-firewire-tascam,
snd-fireworks, snd-oxfw
  - Perform sound card registration at least 2 seconds after the last IEEE
    1394 bus reset.  This was already implemented for snd-dice in Linux
    v4.5 and is now adopted by the other FireWire audio drivers.  It
    ensures that the bus and device firmware settle into a ready state
    before userspace initiate I/O to the device.


Linux 4.6 (15 May 2016)
-----------------------

snd-bebob
  - internal rework related to streaming recovery after bus reset

snd-dice
  - Change how the dependency between number of available PCM and MIDI
    channels versus sampling rate is handled.  Also affects the hw_params
    ioctl interface.  Userspace should set the desired sampling rate
    before starting PCM I/O.
  - Change how phase lock is ensured and how lock status is detected.
  - Remove matching of SYT fields of the outbound stream to those of the
    inbound stream.  This synchronization happened when the device was
    configured for internal clock.  It required a startup delay of the
    outbound stream, which caused DICE II based devices to remain silent
    at the first attempt to start streaming.
  - Add support for previously unavailable higher PCM channels on certain
    devices with high channel count, notably Focusrite Saffire PRO 40,
    Focusrite Liquid Saffire 56, and TC Electronic Studio Konnekt 48.
    These devices spread the PCM and MIDI channels across 2 tx + 2 rx IEEE
    1394 channels instead of just 1 tx + 1 rx IEEE 1394 channel, as most
    other devices do.

snd-oxfw
  - improvements to MIDI I/O


Linux 4.5 (13 March 2016)
-------------------------

snd-dice
  - Improved handling of DICE II firmware bootstrapping during device
    start-up.
  - Avoid time-out when PCM streaming is started.

snd-firewire-tascam
  - Add support for TASCAM FW-1804.

snd-scs1x
  - The functionality of this driver was moved to the snd-oxfw driver, and
    the now obsolete snd-scs1x module has been removed.


Linux 4.4 (10 January 2016)
---------------------------

firewire-ohci
  - Work around JMicron JMB38x initialization quirk.  Affected isochronous
    transmission, e.g. audio via FFADO or ALSA.  Also fixed in v4.3.3,
    v4.2.8, v4.1.15, v3.14.59, v3.12.52, v3.10.95, 3.2.74.

snd-bebob
  - Fix device identifier of Mackie Onyx 1220/1620/1640 FireWire I/O card.

snd-dice
  - Fix device identifier of Mackie Onyx Blackbird and Onyx-i series.

snd-firewire-digi00x
  - New driver for Digidesign audio interfaces: Digi 002 Console, Digi 002
    Rack, Digi 003 Console, Digi 003 Rack, Digi 003 Rack+.  Written by
    Takashi Sakamoto.

snd-firewire-lib
  - numerous changes for additional device driver support
  - Handle "unexpected protocol" error with some BeBoB devices, e.g.
    M-Audio FireWire 1814.

snd-firewire-tascam
  - New driver for TASCAM audio interfaces: FW-1082, FW-1884.  Written by
    Takashi Sakamoto.

snd-oxfw
  - Fix Mackie Onyx Satellite packet discontinuity when device is used in
    base station mode.
  - Add support for TASCAM FireOne.
  - Fix calculation of MIDI ports.
  - Fix for statically linked (i.e. non-modular) builds.

-- 
Stefan Richter
-======----- =--= =-==-
http://arcgraph.de/sr/